Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Isaiah chapter 41. Do you remember when we were young?
I want us all to think back when we were just little, little people. I know some of us, that's a ways
back, but that's okay. And some of us, it's, some of
it's a little, little bit back and in some it's not very far
back, but that's okay. That's okay. Right? Let's think
back when we were little. And I remember this fondly. And
something would happen, and if my mom was there, I'd run to
my mom. Man, I'd run to her so fast. And she'd wrap me up in
her arms. And it was usually mom that said
this. Dad was like, come on, get tough, right? But usually
mom, though, would wrap her arms around me and say, it's OK. You
don't have to be afraid. You don't have to be afraid.
It's all right. And she'd kiss the tears away,
right? And we'd feel so much comfort,
wouldn't we? So much comfort. You know, I see little Rowan,
he just lays his head on folks, right? Just lays his head on
his mama's shoulder, on his grandpa's shoulder, you know? And just
content. And that's how we were, right? Lay our heads on mama's shoulder,
or dad's shoulder, and say, it's okay. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Well, you know what our Heavenly
Father says to us? Fear not. That's what he says
to his people. Fear not. Now, we've all experienced fear,
haven't we? This morning in Sunday school, I said, well, I don't
fear much. And I had to correct myself and go, oh, no, wait,
hold on. Because we all do, right? We all, even now as adults, we
get afraid. Usually our first reaction to
things that happen is fear, is fear. But I want us to think of who's
the one who's going to say these words to us today. Who he is? He's the sovereign
God over all. There's not a speck of dust that
floats in the air. You know how we just went through
fall? Here's a good illustration. This absolutely made my mind
just fizz out when I heard this. I was reading this old-time writer
when I was sick. And he said, God is absolutely
sovereign over everything. that here, a leaf in the spring
buds on a tree. Comes out and it's attached to
that branch, right? And all through the summertime,
wind comes and storms come, right? And that little leaf is just
tossed to and fro, right? It's just tossed everywhere.
But it's still attached to that branch, isn't it? And then the fall comes. And
at the exact second, you're never going to see a leaf fall again
the same way. At the exact second that God's ordained, that little
leaf detaches itself and falls slowly to the ground and lands
exactly where God's ordained. And that's the one who says to
you and I, fear not. Fear not. And we're going to
look at some reasons why we shouldn't fear from this text. Let's look
at Isaiah chapter 41. We'll read verses 1 to 13. Fear thou not. Fear not. Now Isaiah has been, this is
a continuation from chapter 40. But we're going to read here
verses 1 to 13 of 41. And our God says, in contrast
to idols, keep silence before me, O islands, and let the people
renew their strength. Let them come near, then let
them speak. Let us come near together to
judgment. Who raised up the righteous man from the east and called
him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule
over kings. So when a conqueror comes, who
gave those nations to him that he'd conquer? Well, the sovereign God allowed
it, didn't he? He gave them as the dust to his sword and as
driven stubble to his bow. He pursued them and passed safely,
even by the way that he had not gone with his foot. Who hath
wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, the first, and with
the last, I am He. The isles sought and feared,
the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near and came. They helped
his neighbor, and every one said to his brother,
Be of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the
goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer that smote the
anvil, saying, It is ready for the soldering. And he fastened
it with nails, that it should not be moved. But thou, Israel,
art my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen. My, oh my, beloved. We're the
chosen of God, aren't we? The seed of Abraham, my friend.
You remember what we looked at and Dave brought up when he came
up here this morning? He said, good morning, children
of Abraham. We saw that in Sunday school, right? God's people are
the seed of Abraham, the true seed of Abraham, the Israel of
God. Thou whom I have taken from the
ends of the earth. God's people come from every
tribe, tongue, kindred, and nation, don't they? And called thee from
the chief man thereof. He called us by his effectual,
invincible grace, saying to thee, thou art my servant. You're mine. That's God who says
that to us. He says, you're mine. You're
my servant. have chosen thee and not cast
thee away my oh my when did he do that in eternity he didn't
cast us away beloved oh my here we go verse 10 this will
be our text fear thou not for I am with thee that's a promise
of God beloved fear thou not I am with thee that's the great
and I am saying that that's not just you and I say not to each
other that's the great I am that's God that's the sovereign God
overall saying the one who who had that lead break off at that's
that time and land on the exact place of the ground where he
wanted it to and he does it for all these other we see all these trees that lose their
leaves Every one of them! That's the one who says this
to you and I, beloved. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. We didn't make him our God, did
we? No, he's our God. And he's God overall, right?
Saved and unsaved. He's the one true living God.
But look what he says to his people. I will strengthen thee. yea I will help thee I will uphold thee with the right
hand of my righteousness that's Christ look at those precious promises
in this verse look at look at how look at how these are these
are not saying well I'm I'm you know if you let me I'm going
to do these things for you there's not there's not that
in that verbiage at all is there This is God saying to poor, helpless,
hopeless sinners, I'm going to do this for you because you're
mine. You're mine. You're my servants.
You're mine. And he says, because you're mine,
fear not. Because you're mine, be not dismayed. Because you're mine, I'm your
God. Because you're mine, I'll strengthen
you. Because you're mine, I'll help
you. Because you're mine, I'll uphold you. Because you're mine,
I'll uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. I'll
save you by my grace through Christ Jesus, my son, and his
shed precious blood at Calvary's cross. Because you're mine. Oh, if I could only grasp this.
and live in this truth every single second. But I'm a sinner.
But it's still there. It's here for me to come to.
It's like that fountain, right? I talked about it in Sunday school,
right? The fountain's always open, isn't it? It's never closed
for sin and uncleanness, right? We need to be clean from the
defilement of this world, so we still come to Christ, don't
we? We dip in that fountain of blood, that fountain of Christ's
blood. Even though we're forgiven, we still dip in that fountain
of Christ's blood. Oh, it's wonderful. And then he says this, behold,
all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed, and confounded,
and shall be as nothing. All those who come against you,
they're gonna be confounded, and they're gonna become as nothing. And they that strive with thee
shall perish. Thou shalt seek them, and shall not find them,
even them that contend with thee. They that war against thee, they
shall be as nothing. and as a thing of not. It's not
a good thing to go against the Lord's people, against the Lord's
church. Just not. That's who God's talking
about. My oh my. And then he says this,
for I, the Lord thy God, will hold. Now here's another promise.
He doesn't say, well, I might. He says this for I the Lord thy
God will hold thy right hand saying unto thee fear not I Will
help thee I will help thee Lord let me live in that Let me live
in this verse Let me live in these verses the truth of these
verses. I No matter what comes our way, let us, as your people,
live in these verses. Live in the truth of these verses.
If fear props up in our lives, which it will, let us remind
ourselves, fear thou not. Fear thou not. Oh, let us remember that. We
don't need the fear. in this world of, as Brother
Neil mentioned, trials and tribulations, and each year, each year, I love
how you brought that up, Brother Neil, each year the Lord takes
care of us, every single year. The seasons come, the seasons
go, and He takes care of His people. He's so faithful, isn't
He? No, it's amazing. And we should be very thankful,
shouldn't we, for what He's done for us, and we are. He's amazing. He's provided for us again and
again and again and again. He has proved Himself faithful,
hasn't He? Even when I'm not faithful, He's
proved Himself faithful. It's amazing. And things can come suddenly
here in this world, can't they? They can come up just like that.
We see it in the news. We see it in different things.
Bam, it just comes up just like that. And it can make us anxious. It can make us fearful. My oh
my. But I pray that in those times
that we'd fasten our eyes to Christ. That we would just look
to Christ. Look to Him. That's what I have
to keep telling myself. Just look to Christ, Wayne. Look
to Him. Because He rules and reigns,
as we saw in this chapter. He rules and reigns, doesn't
He? He's in absolute control. Oh my! And our text today will
be found in verse 10, like I said, where we're commanded not to
fear or be dismayed, because God is with us. He's not against
us, beloved. As a matter of fact, He says,
who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It's God that justifies us. If
God's for us, who can be against us? People try, right? And they fail. But that's God
protecting us, beloved. That's Him taking care of us.
That's Him watching over us. Individually and as a body. It's
absolutely amazing. I thought a light went out there
for a second. It's amazing. So I'd like to make a few comments
about our text, but before we get to our text, I'd like us
to read through a little bit of this. And this whole portion
just magnifies, just magnifies the sovereignty of God, magnifies
that He's absolute ruler over all. Again, And this chapter continues where
chapter 40 finished, and the prophet Isaiah continues his
sermon through this chapter, which he had begun in chapter
40. And some key points spoken on
here are God's power and His grace, through this little portion
that we're going to look at. And our great God, He has all
power. He's got all power over everything. I know our initial
reaction is fear when something happens in this world, right? But let us remember that
nothing's going to happen outside God's permissive will. You hear
these folks are going off about nuclear war and all this stuff.
That's man. Now, I remember Milton Howard saying
he didn't believe that God was going to destroy the world in
nuclear war because it's not mentioned in the Bible. The only
thing that's mentioned in the Bible is that at the end, the
Lord's going to burn it all up. I know what I can tell you is
from this passage God tells me not to fear. Man's going to keep,
man have been saying this and that for, you know, why should
we listen to man's opinion when they say they scoff at our God
returning? Why should we get caught up on
what they say when they say, well, where is he? Yeah. I don't care what man say
now. I care what this word says. I
care what my God says. Man's going to rail. You know
men have been railing against God for thousands of years. And
he's so long-suffering, isn't he? He didn't destroy them all.
Now when they die, if they die dead in their sins, they find
out that he's real. I was thinking about a guy who
was very famous here. Very famous in the US for years.
Just like that, he died. And as far as we know, he went
right to hell. Just like that. He believes there's
a God now. There was that hawker guy in
England. I can't even remember what his
name was. He was a God-hater. The second he died, he realized
God was real. Now he's in eternal flames. God's
judgment's real. God's no one to be trifled with.
No one to be trifled with. I'll tell you why. He said there,
look at, as I said, verse 12, you know, in verse 11, you go
against His people. You're in for a ride. Let me
tell you. I'll tell you why. Look at verse
1. Keep silence before me, O islands,
and let the people renew their strength. Let them come near
me and let them speak. Let us come near together to
judgment. Notice how he says, keep silent. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge, right? But fools despise wisdom and
instruction. And many times in the Psalms, he says, just be
still. Be still and know that I am God. There's a verse, a
real nice verse that says, be still and know that I'm God.
Just be still, that means don't say a word. There was a young
man who wanted to be a preacher, came up to an older preacher.
He says, I'm ready to preach. He said, you need to sit and
listen. You need to sit and listen. You
need to be still before the Lord. He wasn't trying to pour water
on the guy. He was just saying, you just need to be still. Charlie
and Denise when they first came here. Two years they kept asking
me, what can we do? What can we do? I said, just
sit and listen. The third year they come up and they said, now
we know why you told us to sit and listen. Because the Lord
saved them. Now we know. Now we know why
you said that. Just sit and listen. Sit and
listen. Now what God is doing here too
in this chapter, I can't wander away today because my mic died.
But what God's doing here in this portion here, he's contrasting
himself with idols. He's contrasting himself with
idols, how he's the one true living God, and they're just
a bunch of stone and rock. And he also brings forth that
he is God in both creation and redemption. This again is in
opposition to all the idols, which the corruption of man's
fallen nature has set up. And they're called to acknowledge
the sovereignty of God in verse 1 there. Now look at verses 2
to 4. Who raised up the righteous man
from the east? Who did that? Did an idol do
that? Nope. Called him to his foot,
gave the nations before him, When Israel went into the promised
land, who made that land ready for them to go in and conquer
it? Was it an idol? No, it was the true and living
God, wasn't it? The one true living God, the sovereign over
all, who told them, go in there and take that land. It's yours. It's yours. He says, and made
him rule over kings. Who sets up presidents and prime
ministers? God does that, doesn't he? That's
why he tells us to not complain about him, which is sometimes
hard, right? No, I'm just being honest, right?
No matter what side you're on. To not complain about him, but
to pray for him. Pray for him. My, oh, my. And then he says this, he gave
them as a dust to his sword. So he gives nations to these
conquerors just like dust to a sword. What do you do when
you got dust on the sword? You just wipe it off. You take your sword and you oil
it up again and you wipe it off with a rag or a piece of cloth. And it's driven stubble to his
bow. Look at this. He pursued them and passed safely,
even by the way that he had not gone with his feet. Who has wrought
and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? Who's done that? Who's called
the generations? Has some stupid piece of rock?
Or a piece of stone? Or a piece of wood that man decorates
in gold? No! can't do nothing can it it's
God who's done that look at this he says I the Lord I Jehovah
in the in the Hebrew I Jehovah the first and with the last I
am he he's the one true living God it's him and him alone So
in verses two to four there, the challenge is answered by
God in verse four, stating his sovereignty over the idols of
man. He is the sovereign king. In verse 4 asks, who has wrought
it? And who does it? Who calls the
generations from the beginning? Who chose us in Christ? The Father
did. Jehovah did. And remember, He
looked down upon all the generations of the world, right? He called
them forth. He chose who was a vessel of
honor and who was a vessel of dishonor. It was Him who had
done that. We don't understand why, do we?
It baffles our minds that we're vessels of honor. But it's Him
who's chosen to do that. And in verse 4, He says, I, the
Lord, I, Jehovah, the first, and with the last, I am He. I'm
He. And notice this declaration,
I am He. That's a declaration, isn't it? Turn if you would, quickly, just
quick, just to John 14. And we're noticed here. Just two
verses, and we know them both, but I'd like us to look at this
in this context, because here Christ is declaring who he is,
very plainly. And very clearly, just like our
father did, the Jehovah did, there when he said, I, the Lord,
the first, and with the last, I am he. He declared who he was,
the one true living God from beginning to end. And then look
what Christ says here about himself. John 14, verses 6 and 7. He said, Jesus saith unto him,
I am the way, the way. Notice the singularity of it.
The way. There's not many ways. There's
one way. And he says, I'm the way. And then he says this, and
the truth. You want to search for truth?
It's in Christ and Him alone. Every man's a liar. We all are,
aren't we? We all are. You ever joke and
lie with people? Oh, it's just joking. We're just priests. We're all just a bunch of liars,
right? But He's the truth, beloved. He's the truth. He is the truth. He's truth incarnate. And then
look at this. This is wonderful. Wonderful
for poor dead sinners who've been saved by the mercy of God,
he says, and the life, the life, eternal life, the life giver,
mine. And then he says, no man cometh
unto the Father but by me. Now that's exclusive, isn't it? He says, there's no way. for
anyone to see Jehovah, to come to Jehovah, except through me."
Now that's a statement. People say, well, that's narrow-minded.
That's my king saying that. That's not my words, that's his
words. And he is God incarnate in the flesh. I'm going to believe
God over man. Right? By the grace of God, right?
Yeah, by the grace of God. Because if it wasn't for the
grace of God, we wouldn't believe these words. And then he says,
if ye had known me, ye should have known my father also. And
from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. If ye have
seen the Son, ye have seen the Father. Isn't that wonderful? So you
see how that ties in with Isaiah 41.4. Let's go back there and
read that verse again with that in mind, with what Christ said. He says, who hath wrought and
done it, calling the generations from the beginning, I the Lord,
the first and with the last, I am he. Now let's read verses
5 to 7. And again, we see that God's
chosen people are taught and acknowledge God's sovereignty.
We're taught about God's sovereignty, and we acknowledge God's sovereignty. Look at verses 5 to 7. The isle
sought and feared. The ends of the earth were afraid,
and drew near and came. They helped every one his neighbor,
and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage. So the carpenter
encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer,
him that smote the anvil, saying that it is ready for the soldering.
And he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved."
Here we have I'm sorry Here we have an account which
the Lord gives of Idolatry and Behold the folly of it on full
display see men man works with their hands. They take a piece
of wood Somebody brings some gold Be like if we went to brother
Neal's farm there cut down the tree and And I said, well, there's
a good piece of wood, Brother Neil. I need that. So they take
the piece of wood. And then they go to the goldsmith,
give him the gold, say, make me an idol. It's a piece of tree. It's just a piece of wood. Well,
then that guy takes it and fastens gold upon it and puts a design
on there. And then the people bow down
to it. Now, I'll tell you what, though. I have nowhere to say
about that, except it's totally wrong, right? But I did the same
with statues of Mary when I was in Catholicism. There's no difference. There's no difference. It's a
piece of stone. I remember after the Lord saved
me, and I went into a dollar store at West with my mom. I
wasn't preaching then, but I was a believer, and I went to the
dollar store with my mom. And she saw a statue of Mary, and she bought it for a dollar. And she got back in the car,
and she said, this will be a good one to pray for, pray to. My
heart broke. My heart broke, beloved. And
I'll tell you why. I wasn't a preacher then, but
I sure told her the truth. I said, mom, that's a piece of,
it's just ceramic. There's nothing in it. It's a
fake idol. And you're going to pray to it?
It can't do anything. You just bought it for a dollar.
But you see how steep, how idolatry can grab a hold of people. Right? My, oh my. And they hold on to
that. And you know why? He says, But
if the gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. See, the
gospel was hid to her. It was hid to me too. It was
hid to you at one time, wasn't it? And it says, In whom the
God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine So the reason people are so steeped
in this, still, still steeped in this, in all different lands,
bowing down to statues, bowing down to pictures. In India they
have how many different gods they bow down to? I don't even
know. False idols, beloved. But the
reason they do is because the Gospels hid from them. Just like
at one time it was hid from us, but praise be to God, He's shown
the glorious light of His Son in our hearts, right? And we're
born again by the Holy Spirit of God. Now we believe. It's
not hid. Now, like that portion that Brother
Neil read, now we see. We're not blind now. Now we see
Christ. Now we believe. And as I said
in Sunday School, that's a miracle of God. that we believe, and so many
people in this town don't believe, so many people in this country
don't believe, so many people in this world don't believe,
and here we are, we believe what God says. Isn't that incredible? That's the grace of God, isn't
it? That's the mercy of God on full display. And we believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, He whom Jehovah sent, the only Savior
of sinners, the one who said, I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No one comes unto the Father
but by me. And we believe that. By God's
grace and mercy, we believe that, beloved. Now let's read verses
8 and 9. Now these are comforting words.
These are comforting words for spiritual Israel. As we looked
at in Sunday school, all who believe are the spiritual seed
of Abraham. They're known in the scripture as God's elect.
Look at this in Isaiah 41, verses 8 and 9. But thou, Israel, art
my servant. Every child of God is a servant
of God. Every child of God is a servant. Isn't that wonderful? We're all
servants here in this church. We're servants of God. Servants
of the one true living God. It's amazing. Jacob, whom I've
chosen, You know, well, every one of God's people being chosen
by God. My, oh my. And then look what
he says, the seed of Abraham, my friend. Well, we looked again
in Sunday school that said, all who believe are the children
of Abraham in Galatians chapter three, verse seven. It's incredible. So here's comforting
words. for God's people. It says, Thou
whom I have taken from the ends of the earth. I've taken you
from where you were. I've set you upon the rock. And
that rock is Christ. God did that, didn't he? God
did that for us. I love how these statements too
are already done. I've done this. and called thee from the chief
man thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant, I have chosen
thee. And look at this. Now this is
so comforting. And not cast thee away. Never cast away. You know, friends
might leave us, right? And family and people who we've
loved for years might just all of a sudden get up and leave.
Leave our lives. Sometimes even our own family
members, brothers, sisters, who knows? But God says, here, I'll
never cast you away. I'll never gonna do that. Never. You know why? Because you're
mine. I chose you. Isn't that amazing? I'll tell
you why. Mm, mm, mm. God's so good. What comforting words. As the
gospel spread, it drew, and still does today, the resentment of
idolatrous heathens as those who embrace the gospel of salvation
in Christ alone by God's grace were persecuted grievously by
the Romans and by Roman emperors. And still today, believers are
persecuted around the world. And here before us are comforting
words for them and also for us. The chosen of God were called
out of idolatry and shall never be cast away. That's why the
Lord says, fear not him who can destroy your body, but fear him
who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Don't fear, man. As I said, I
know it's hard. We hear all this noise. And that's
what it is, really. It's just noise. Oh, there's
going to be a nuclear war. Oh, this is going to happen.
This is that. I'm going to trust God. Like
Neil said, year after year after year, the Lord is taking. Let
us look back at that and go, Lord, well, do you remember when
we were younger, those who were my age in the 50s? almost 60. They said there was going to
be an ice age. Remember that? In the 50s, it was, there's going
to be a nuclear war. Right? The world's going to be destroyed
by a nuclear war. In the late 60s and 70s, it was,
there's going to be another ice age. There's going to be another
ice age. Oh my goodness. Now, right, all
of the climate What happened to the other thing?
Where'd the bombs go? Where'd the ice age go? Now we're
in climate. It went from being too cold to
being too hot. Right? That's man. Fools, yeah? That's man. I'll tell you what. I told my
daughter, who's concerned about the climate, I said, God's going
to burn it all up. She said, well, should we be
good stewards? I said, of course we should be good stewards of
the earth. Of course. God's told us to do that. But
there's more wood than we can ever burn in this creation of
God. And you notice something? Man
cuts trees down, and they grow again. And God has sustained
this earth, and I'll tell you why. He has sustained this earth
for 6,000 years now. And however long God However long God will have this
all go till it's finished, He will keep the earth sustained.
He will. And you notice it just keeps
producing? Just keeps producing. Oh my. Because God's in absolute
control. And this world was made so that
His plan of salvation could occur. So that Christ could come and
be the Savior of his people. And when that's all done, it's
all finished. They're going to be then, then
they're going to be a new heaven and earth wherein dwell righteousness. Oh my goodness. So let man rail
on. Let them say what they want.
Let them say what they want. We're going to trust God. By
the grace of God, we're going to trust God. Oh my So here are
comforting words, called out, called out by the mighty sovereign
God, called out by Jehovah. Those he's called, he'll never
cast away. What comforting words. Sinners made will it to flee
to Christ and a Savior to protect us and keep us and watch over
us. Do you know he watches over us
every single day? There's nothing that happens
in our life that he doesn't know about. OK, let's quickly get
to the main text here. I got off running on other things
there. But here's the main text. Isaiah
41.10, look at this. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee.
Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. What a promise. What a promise. Now here are five things. I think I got five things. Here's
a few points then. some reasons why we should not fear. Number one, the Lord says, fear
not. So we shouldn't fear what man says, because God says, fear
not. Look in this way. Fear not, for
I am with thee. Burn it in my heart, Lord. Burn
it in my heart, please. The Almighty Sovereign God became
a man and died on the cross to save sinners like you and I.
He shed his precious blood to redeem our eternal souls. And
the Almighty Sovereign God of the universe, he tells us here,
I'm with you. No wonder David said, whom shall
I fear? In Psalm 27. No wonder he said
that. Whom shall I fear? If the Lord's
with us, whom shall we fear? See, but we're just flesh, aren't
we? And the Lord knows. He knows our frailty. He knows
we're but dust. Donny Bell, you say, the flesh,
the flesh, the flesh. It's so true, isn't it? It's
so true. But Emmanuel means what? God
with us. That's one of his titles, isn't
it? So he's with us all the time, beloved. the God who created
the universe, the one who holds it all together by His almighty
power. He's with us. In Hebrews 13.5,
one of my favorite verses, it became my life verse. It says,
Let your conversation, that means your life, not what we speak,
but it means your life, be without covetousness, and be content
with such things as you have. For He has said, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 13.5. And again, as you've
heard me say it again, I'll say it again. The word never there
is in the triple negative. Never, not ever, never. In the
Greek. You don't see that very often. And it's like he's saying, I'm
never, not ever, never going to leave you or forsake you.
God says that in his word. My oh my. He has said, and he
says that here, doesn't he? He says, fear not, for I am with
thee. What's that mean? That means he's never going to
be without, we're never going to be without him, right? Oh
my. Number two, we should not fear
as God is our God. So another reason why we shouldn't
fear the things in the world and the things of men, which
I know we do, but these are things that we can get a hold of, beloved.
When that does spike up in our lives, because it will, We can
grab a hold of these. We can go to this verse and grab
a hold of these truths here, and let them permeate our souls. Our God is God. Our God is God. Look at verse 1. But now, thus
saith Jehovah that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee,
O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called
thee by thy name, thou art mine. Actually, I turn over two chapters.
Turn over two chapters. I'm reading ahead of y'all. Isaiah
43. I just got too excited there.
Look at this. Look what He says. Look what the Holy One of God
says to His people here. Isaiah 43, verses 1 to 3. But
now, thus saith the Lord, it is Jehovah that created thee,
O Jacob, and He that formed thee. So He is the Creator of all people. Oh, Israel, fear not, for I have
redeemed thee. Who's redeemed us? God. God's
redeemed us. I have called thee by thy name.
My sheep hear my voice, and they what? They follow me. They follow
me. Thou, oh, look at this. These
are three magnificent words. Thou art mine. Mine, you're mine, he says. I just, I'm never gonna get over
that. Never gonna get over that. Now look at this, when we come
to death, when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.
Through the rivers, they shall not overflow with thee. When
thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not be burned. Neither
shall the flame kindle upon thee. All the storms of life that come,
they're not gonna overtake us. They may seem like they are,
We may be up to our necks in water and they may seem to overflow
us, but he's never going to let us drown. Never. He may just take us home, right?
And when that time comes, he will. Look at this. For I am
the Lord thy God. I am Jehovah thy God, the Holy
One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Sebia for thee. What a statement. I am the Lord
thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. Who's our Savior? God incarnate in the flesh, the
Lord Jesus Christ. So our God is God. Our God is God. My oh my. He's gonna ever be with us, beloved.
He'll never leave us. He'll never forsake us. And look
at verse 10 again of Isaiah 41. Fear thou not, For I am with thee, be not dismayed,
for I am thy God. Our God is the one true living
God. And then what does he tell us here? Well, we should not
fear because God will strengthen us. He says here, I will strengthen
thee. You ever been so weak where you
feel like you can't do nothing? You ever been so sick where you
feel like you can't do nothing? You ever felt like you were in
such a hopeless place where it seems like the whole world's
crashing around you? You ever wonder why it doesn't
overtake us? Because God says, I'll be there
with you. I'm going to go through the water with you. I'm going
to go through the fire with you. I'm going to take you right through
it. Then I'm going to take you home. Well, you're going to be
with me forever, because I'm God. I'm the one true living God.
So when we're weighed down by burdens and temptations, He gives
us strength. 2 Corinthians says this, and
he said to Paul, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength
is made perfect in weakness. You see, when we're weak, then
He's strong. See, when we humans, we tend
to be, when we're strong, We feel like we don't need help. We need help all the time, beloved.
All the time. I do. I need it all the time. And then Paul says, most gladly,
therefore, I will glory in my infirmities, that the power of
Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in
my infirmities, and reproaches, and necessities, and persecutions,
and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I'm
strong. And he said, we know he's only
strong because our Lord tells us here in this verse, I will
strengthen thee. Oh my, give him the glory, beloved.
And then he says this. Another reason why we should
not fear the things of man is because God has said, here, here,
help us. Look at this. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee. And these are not maybes, are
they? These are statements of fact. He doesn't say, well, if you
do all this, then I'll help you. If you do what all these men
say to do, then I'll help you. No, He doesn't say that. He helps
poor, wretched sinners. He saves them by His grace, and
then He helps them all through the rest of their life upon this
earth. And you know, all through our walk, We're told to look
to Christ, look to Christ, look to Christ, right? Who are we
going to look at in glory? We're going to be looking to
Christ. Isn't that wonderful? We're going
to be looking to Him. Oh, God will help us. He promised
us here. Now, this is a promise. Spurgeon used to say, when you
see the promises of God, just lay hold of them and hold tight
to them, because that's a promise from God. I will help you. When we're weak, Lord, you said
you'd strengthen me. Please, please, please give me strength.
That's why we pray, Lord, give folks grace and strength when
they're going through things, because we're weak. We're weak. My, oh, my. So God will help us all through
our tribulations and trials. Scripture says this, for we have
not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like us, as
we are yet without sin. So he was sinless. He was tempted
like us, but yet perfectly sinless. And it says, let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. Don't be afraid to go
to Christ with anything. Because the scripture says, let
us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we
may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. When we go to the feet of Christ,
we will find help, beloved. And usually, I know, usually
it's by the time we've exhausted all our own efforts, right? Then
we go to Christ. Lord, teach me to go to you right
away. Before I exhaust my fruitless
labor. Oh, because you know what? Have
you ever noticed when we do that, we just get more of a dither?
My mom used to say the word dither. It's so true. We just start spinning,
don't we? Oh my. Notice I said we. I'm right there with you. Oh
my. And then let's look at the last
point. Last point is God will uphold us. And who does he uphold
us in? Christ. Who's the right hand of his righteousness?
Christ. Let's read that whole verse again.
He tells we who are believers, fear thou not, for I am with
thee. This is Jehovah saying this.
Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee,
yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. God will uphold us, beloved.
He will keep us. If our salvation depended upon
anything we do, we would be gone. But it's not a speck of our righteousness
comes from us as believers. It all comes from Christ. we're
clothed in His righteousness, right? Our righteousness is like
filthy rags to the Lord, but Christ's righteousness, when
He looks, think of this too, beloved. Think about this this
week. When He looks upon you and I, when God the Father looks
upon a believer in Christ, He sees us clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. He sees us spotless. That's absolutely amazing. And
then He says, not only will I save you, Not only will I strengthen
you, not only will I help you, but I'm going to hold you up.
You ever see that, I call it silly, but that footprints in
the sand? And it shows the first two footprints,
and then it shows the one. Well, I'll tell you what, for
me, there was only one set of footprints. That wasn't mine. God carried
me through my whole life. And He's still carrying me. Is
He carrying you? And he's going to carry us home
one day, isn't he? Praise his mighty name. Now unto him, now unto him that is able, God's able, to
what? To keep you from falling. God's
able to do that, isn't he? Why? He said, I'm going to keep
you. I'm going to uphold you. And Jude says this, and to present
you Faultless. Faultless. Faultless, beloved. All, all, all. Amen.
Faultless. Christ is going to present us
faultless. Where? Before the throne of God. With exceeding joy. He's going
to present us faultless with great exceeding joy. He's going
to say, Father, here's the ones you gave me. They're faultless,
clothed in my spotless righteousness. To the only wise God, there's
only one God in there, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion
and power now and forever. Amen. So let we, who are the
people of God this week, Let us meditate upon these wonderful
truths that we've looked at today. That our God tells us not to
fear. Tells us he'll keep us. Tells
us he chose us. Tells us he redeemed us. By his
precious, precious blood. Tells us I'm going to uphold
you to the end. When the waters come upon you,
the deep waters, I'm going to carry you through them. And I'm going to present you,
my precious, precious bride, absolutely faultless, just as
if you never sinned. And we sinners in heaven will
be saying, Glory to the lamb that was slain We're gonna join our brothers
and sisters one day There's some brothers and sisters. We know
already up there, and I'll tell you this they're saying worthy
is the lamb Worthy is Let us say that in our hearts while
we're here on this earth Because we're gonna be saying it in glory
beloved. Oh, oh my Our great God is so, so good to us.